Reprinted from DIGITAL Photographer,
a bimonthly print magazine.
by Henry Adrian
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Dimage Scan Elite F-2900 |
Digital cameras aren't the only way to get digital still pictures into your computer. The flatbed scanner can do that, too. And, now that they're so cheap, you'd think they'd be perfect for the job. But, there are traps here. Low-cost scanners often equate with low quality.
On the other hand, there are high-quality (read higher-cost) scanners that do amazing work, better than most consumer digital cameras with their highest resolutions. These scanners work either with the original 35mm negative or a 35mm slide.
One of the newest generation film/slide scanners from Minolta, the
Dimage Scan Elite F-2900 ($1,495 MSRP) arrived for a timely review. In a package the size of a small kitchen toaster,
it can easily hook up to your PC or Mac computer with SCSI interface. As we'll soon discover, this amazingly versatile film/slide scanner--with its Digital ICE technology--is nearly worth its weight in gold. Read on to find out why.
Digital ICE Technology
Film and slide scanners have been around for several years. But it's only within the last few years that their price has become relatively affordable. And their resolution has dramatically improved. The Minolta Dimage Elite F-2900 is capable of up to 2820 dots-per-inch (dpi) input resolution. This 2820 dpi input resolution is capable of scanning a 35mm color slide or 35mm color negative with enough resolution to make various-sized photo-quality prints, from snapshot-side (4 inches by 6 inches) all the way up to gallery sized (10 inches by 14 inches)!
The real magic behind the F-2900 film/slide scanner is its use of a technology called Digital ICE. ICE stands for Integrated Correction and Enhancement, and is software that is imbedded in the scanner. Applied Science Fiction (ASF) created digital ICE, and it is truly miraculous, in every sense of the word. Digital ICE digitally corrects slides and negatives that show the effects of aging and mishandling--dust spots, spots, scratches, for instance. Digital ICE software is part of the scanning process and transparent to the user. The correction software intelligently knows the difference between surface defects and the actual image being scanned. It subtly removes most of these surface defects digitally without altering the underlying image. Now, that's what I call miraculous!
How does Digital ICE work? Well, that's a company secret they wouldn't even tell me! Just be glad that the correction software is licensed to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) like Minolta and are made an automatic part of their scanner. Sorry, it's not available separately as software only. For more information about ASF and its wide range of digital imaging software products, go to its Web site at www.asf.com
F-2900 Scanner Setup
The Minolta F-2900 Scanner is nicely packaged in a compact box, and is available either complete with a PCI SCSI host adapter card ($1,495 MSRP) or without ($1,395 MSRP). The SCSI host adapter card is for legacy PCs without SCSI. Also included is a SCSI cable, Driver Software and Adobe Photoshop Light image processing software, a 35mm slide holder (four-slide capacity), a 35mm negative slide holder (six-negative capacity), and a well-written instruction manual.
Because the F-2900 uses the SCSI interface, your computer needs to have it for connectability. if you're a Mac user, practically any legacy model Macintosh older than the second generation G3 will work with the F-2900. Later model Mac G3 and new Mac G4 platforms, which didn’t have the SCSI interface available, will have to have an additional PCI SCSI host adapter installed. These SCSI adapters are relatively inexpensive, and available from companies such as Adaptec.
If you are a PC user, and don't already have SCSI on your system, the version with the bundled SCSI host adapter card is great package for you. All you need is a spare PCI slot to install the card. Follow the installation instructions, load the driver software, and connect up the scanner to your SCSI host adapter card.
Of course if you already have SCSI, then get the scanner package, which doesn't include the adapter ($1,395 MSRP). Connect up the 25-pin end of the provided SCSI cable to your computer's SCSI port. Note, if your PC computer has a later version of SCSI. Using a 50-pin high-density connector, just get a 50-pin HD to 25-pin standard SCSI adapter.
Scanning Software Installation and Preferences
For PC users, the CD-ROM of driver software installs DS Elite, a TWAIN compatible utility that can be used either as a stand-alone program, or with the bundled Adobe Photoshop Light software. It can also be used with the full version of Photoshop as well. With either Photoshop or Photoshop Light, the scanning software is launched from the menu. The first step is to menu-select File/Import/Select Twain 32 Source. Select the DS Elite 1.0 TWAIN, then select File/Import/Twain32. The Main Window GUI appears.
For Mac Users, the CD-ROM will install the DS-Elite Utility program, as well as the DS-Elite Plug-in. Click on the DS-Elite Utility to open the scanners Main Window. To use the DS-Elite Plug-in within an application like Photoshop, drag the plug-in into the Import/Export folder of the Adobe Photoshop (or Photoshop Light) Plug-ins folder.
The first important step in scanning is selecting your type of film format--either 35mm slide, 35mm color negative, or 35mm BW negative--easily selectable from the interface. The second step is to set up the Scanning Preferences. Many Scan preferences are available, but the most important ones are Auto Expose for Slides, Color Depth 8 bit, Digital ICE On (very important). The APS Settings are applicable if you are using the optional APS adapter.
Input & Output Resolutions
The next series of steps involve setting up your Input and Output Resolution. Input resolution is the amount of detail the F-2900 will use when scanning the slide or negative. A selectable scale of resolution numbers from a low of 282 dpi (dots per inch) to a super high 2,820 dpi is possible. Why? It relates to what you want to do with the scanned image. This is integrally related to the output resolution.
For example, a 35mm slide could be scanned at the high, 2820 dpi resolution setting. Selecting 300 dpi as an Output resolution would allow printing a photo-quality print up to about 6 inches by 9 inches. Or, you could drop the Output Resolution to only 200 dpi, and increase the printed image size up to about 10 inches by 14 inches. It's like a delicate balancing act. In general, scanning at higher resolution permits many more output resolution possibilities. However, be aware that images scanned at high resolution yield very large file sizes. It's not unusual for image files to be 25MB or larger, if scanned at the 2820-resolution setting. And, they also take a much longer time to scan.
But, let's say you only wanted 4-inch by 6-inch photo-quality prints. If you lowered the input resolution to 1133 and set the output resolution to 180 dpi, the 4-inch by 6-inch printed format is very practical. Again, it's a balancing act between your output resolution and needs. A good thing about smaller printed images scanned at lower resolution is that they scan faster.
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| The F-2900 slide holder holds up to four slides |
Scanning
Once your preferences and input/output resolution are set, the scanning process begins. For 35mm slides, insert up to four slides, emulsion (dull) side up into the slide holder. Then insert the slide holder into the F-2900. For color negatives, place them six to a strip, emulsion-side up, in the negative carrier.
Scanning begins by clicking on the low-resolution PreScan button. The prescanned image appears in the window with the dotted-line cropping tool active. This tool is used to selectively crop the area to be scanned at higher resolution. Resizing handles on the cropping frame make the cropping process very easy. When you crop, you'll notice the Width and Height dimensions changing, as well.
Finally it's time to perform the high-resolution scan. Clicking on the Scan button starts the process. The scan time will vary according to your input resolution. Depending on whether you use the stand-alone DS-Elite utility, or use the Photoshop TWAIN method for PCs or Photoshop Plug-in method for Macintosh, your scanned image will eventually be ready for you to work with.
With the stand-alone DS-Elite utility, you can rotate, crop, magnify, and perform other image corrections. The most important of these image corrections are brightness, contrast, color balance, hue, saturation, and lightness. In addition to manual sliders for all parameters, there are Auto setting buttons for automatic correction. Additional image corrections can be made by way of Tone Curves and Histograms. Suffice it to say that you have all the tools to recover all the image quality you desire from your color slide or negative. Or you can be creative and modify your scanned image into something completely different. You can also save your final work in various image formats (for PC users--BMP, TIFF, and JPEG, and for Mac users--PICT, TIFF, and JPEG).
Using the scanner via Photoshop TWAIN or Plug-in, your scanned image is loaded right into the application. There you have the full image processing power to crop, image enhance, and save in a variety of file formats to suit your needs.
APS Option
Those of you who have the new generation 35mm Advanced Photo System (APS) camera will be delighted to know there is an optional APS Adapter ($199 MSRP). The adapter accepts a processed "roll" of APS film, and allows the F-2900 scanner to index scan the images. Much like the index print that comes with your APS developed film, the Index Scan feature allows you to go through each image on the APS roll, and mark those for eventual scanning. All the same tools for image cropping, enhancement, etc., are available using the APS Adapter.
Performance
How did the Dimage Scan Elite F-2900 perform? In a word, marvelously! I was able to resurrect legacy 35mm slide and film negatives, use Digital ICE technology to clean them up, scan them in at ultra high resolution, and make great photo-quality blow-ups up to 10 inches by 15 inches. And all, without hardly a trace of the dust spots and other surface defects that would have normally prevented a high-quality blow-up of this type.
The scan time varies with input resolution. For example, at the 2820 input resolution, the slide scan took about 12 minutes. And the file size was about 25MB. But, the scanned image was exquisite, as clean and bright as the day I had taken it, without all the dust spots and scratches that had cropped up over the years. My selected output resolution was 240 dpi, which yielded the 10-inch by 15-inch printed image size. In actuality, I wanted to go to 300 dpi, but this couldn't be achieved at that large printed image size.
Of course, I was printing out the images on my Epson Stylus Photo EX printer, capable of prints up to 10 inches by 16 inches. But, I realize that many of you might only have a photo-quality printer capable of 8-inch by 10-inch prints. It's an easy thing to set a different input/output resolution and size and scan according to your needs.
Color negatives were a bit more problematical. Some of my aging color negatives were really curly, and getting them to fit in the negative holder was tricky. If you've kept your color negatives flat and stored in their print folders, it shouldn't be a problem for you. After scanning, the image had a decided greenish color cast, so I used use RGB color balance controls, and added Red to improve skin tones.
To Scan Or Not To Scan?
Some of you may be wondering why bother with a film or slide scanner? After all, isn't the ultimate goal to shoot digitally and not be concerned with the film medium at all? Yes, that's certainly a consideration for newcomers, but if you have a legacy of 35mm slides or negatives, a good quality film/slide scanner is a great tool to help you get your images into the digital domain.
There are inexpensive flatbed scanners ($200 or less) with optional slide/film adapters. But these don’t produce as high a quality scan as the Minolta F-2900 model we tested. And they certainly don’t have the miraculous Digital ICE image correction technology built into them. You'll be very frustrated trying to clean up those old negatives and slides getting them ready for the scan. The Digital ICE process does that for you automatically!
For more information about the Minolta Dimage Scan Elite F-2900, contact Minolta at its Web site at www.minolta.com/elite/index.html
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